Oko Jumbo

Oko Jumbo (died 1891) was an important chief in the Kingdom of Bonny, a state in the Niger Delta, now part of Rivers State, Nigeria. For many years in the 19th century he was the effective ruler of Bonny.

The Kingdom of Bonny, originally called Ubani, is a traditional state based on the town of Bonny in Rivers State, Nigeria. The kingdom was inhabited by the Ijoid and Igbo people. Bonny rose to power beginning in the 15th century with the coming of the Portuguese and the Atlantic slave trade, acting as a depot for slaves brought from the interior. In the 19th century, the kingdom was forced by the British to end the slave trade. Trade in palm oil replaced trade in slaves.

Oko Jumbo was the son of a slave who became a lesser chief in Bonny, but managed to amass considerable wealth and thus power through astute trading. He became one of the leaders of a group of chiefs who dominated the ruling Manilla Pepple house. On the death of King Dapho of Bonny on 13 August 1855, the acting British Consul in the Bight of Biafra, J.W.B. Lynslager, signed a document on 11 September 1855 appointing the chiefs Anne Pepple, Ada Allison, Captain Hart and Manilla Pepple as a regency, required to consult with Bannego and Oko Jumbo, "two gentlemen of the river".

The arrangement, which gave the Manilla Pepple house control of the regency, caused immediate disputes with the rival Anna (or Annie) Pepple house. When Lynslager's replacement arrived, he reported that "the four regents never lived in unity of unanimity ... consequently civil was ever ripe around and about them .. leading to immense loss of British property". When the official leader of the Manilla house died in 1863, Banego and Oko Jumbo could not agree who was to succeed, and so appointed a figurehead named Warribo while continuing to control the house. In an attempt to restore calm, the British restored William Dappa Pepple I (whom they had exiled in 1854) as king on 18 August 1861, and on his death on 30 September 1866 installed his son George Oruigbiji Pepple as king. However, Oko Jumbo remained a leading power in the kingdom.

On 6 March 1866, Bishop Crowther described Oko Jumbo as the "most sensible and wealthy" man in Bonny, and noted that he had learned to read the first chapter of St. Matthew. The next year he had learned to write, and enrolled thirteen of his children in school. He gave his support to the Christian missionaries, and on Easter Day 1867 joined King George in declaring that the Iguana, the traditional deity of Bonny, was no longer "Bonny Juju".

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